cath up time

Hi loves! this past week was a whirlwind of fun. from 1st birthday parties to fireworks, to laughing until it hurts, to Harry Potter world, to taking funny pictures, to butter beer.

it was such a blessing to be able to take a week off of work and enjoy the company of my best friend, and enjoy summer.

here's my week in photos.

{red white and blue cupcakes}

{smash cake}



such a great week! but, I'm ready to go back to work :) who would have thunk it?

how was your fourth of july???

tradition & a birthday

today my best friend is coming to visit for a week and I can't even try and tell you how excited I am.

you see, we met in kindergarten, fighting over the same boy, and it's been bliss since.

when you look up best friend in the dictionary, her face is there.

there isn't a moment in my life that I can look back on and not see her in the picture.

we have this 9 year long tradition. nine years is a really long time. and actually if you want to get more specific you could say before that.

we grew up in the little town of Aurora, Ohio where every Fourth of July all the families would gather at Sunny Lake park to sit on the big hill and watch the fireworks.

in the 7th grade, we moved. no longer allowing us to go to Sunny Lake.
the following summer, Josie came to visit, and since then we've only missed one Fourth of July together.

it's a tradition not worth breaking. and yes the older we get, the more difficult it is to plan trips around school and families, and jobs...but we do it because we just can't think of doing it with out each other.

tradition makes me happy.
the same thing at the same time each year.
it's so simple.

do you have any long standing traditions with friends?

I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

so here's to tradition!

also.

today is Reagans first birthday (you know, that adorable baby I post pictures of all the time).

I was making coffee this morning and cried because I couldn't believe it's been a year.

I'm getting old.

{blurry, but awesome}

I am so blessed to be able to watch her grow up and I can't wait for all the rest of her birthdays I'll get to celebrate with her!

happy birthday Reaggy poo! Aunt Meggy loves you so so so much!

So...do you feel any older?

Birthdays are a strange thing.
As little girls we revel in the thoughts of those pointy hats and when we get to blow those candles out and see the princess on our cake. We also used to remind everyone that our birthday was x amount of days away...ok confession time: I did that last year too. But you get where I'm going with this, birthdays used to be different when we were younger. Heck after 21, you might as well for get it till 25, then maybe 40, oh and 50 is a big one. And then once your 70 you can do what ever you really want.
Not to mention that after princess birthdays with crowns and jewels, you get this for your birthday:

(ok not that I'm complaining because this is a wonderful perk to being an 'adult')

But those in between years I've heard are pretty the birthdays that you just get to wake up and say 'hey today is my birthday'.
22 is that weird year...and I am just lucky enough to have come upon this super age!

I think honestly for the first time I can answer 'yes' to the age old question 'do you feel any older?'. It's possibly because I made such a small deal about my birthday (which is not normal for me). Or it could be because for the first time in my life I feel like an adult. I'm sure it has everything in the world to do with the fact that I'm about to be a wife, which means everything my parents used to do for me, I get to do on my own. Getting married makes you mature.

This isn't to say that my day Monday wasn't absolutely fabulous, because it was (thanks to awesome friends and family). But it did get me thinking about how fast life goes by.
I saw a friend out that night that I hadn't really seen since my last birthday...a whole 365 days ago.
Life goes by quicker than we could ever imagine, and it's gone in the blink of an eye.

So celebrate everyday like it's your birthday. Maybe we shouldn't wear party hats out everyday, but we should most definitely marvel in our own beauty. And maybe a cake a day wont be the best idea for our behinds, but I hear wine is good for your health.

Here's to 365 days of celebrating being a young and beautiful woman.